Anne Butcher. Her thoughts that count.

30 Movies in 30 Days: The Other Woman

Had I seen it before: No.

What IMDb says: After discovering her boyfriend is married, Carly soon meets the wife he’s been betraying. And when yet another love affair is discovered, all three women team up to plot revenge on the three-timing S.O.B.

Requirements Fulfilled:

– At least one PG-13 movie
– At least one new movie solely because a friend or reader suggested it even if it’s not “your type” of movie.

Why I picked it: There is a fair chance I NEVER would’ve thought to watch this movie for this project but today I was enjoying a nice day off with some family and this was one of my godmother’s favorite movies. And so that’s what we watched. There is something fun about diving into a movie you wouldn’t pick for yourself though, hence why I made it one of the requirements.

What I liked about it: I liked that all three of the leading ladies in this movie are sympathetic and likable while still having their own identities. Sometimes I find movies like this will essentially just write the same protagonist three times with only superficial traits differentiating them (she’s a good girl, but she’s a rebel!) Here we have a suburban housewife (Kate), a high power lawyer (Carly), and a young woman whose job I don’t remember (Amber).

The Kate/Carly relationship is definitely the primary relationship of the movie and the two characters play off each other quite well. It’s important to note that not only is one a suburban housewife while the other is a high power lawyer, but that the two women have two fundamentally different ways of processing the world. Carly is confident, Kate isn’t. Carly listens to her gut and her brain and doesn’t like to rethink a decision once it’s made. Kate is constantly second-guessing herself. It is these differences, not their artificial lifestyle differences, that can drive a story forward.

There’s also something nice about any movie that celebrates female friendship and even exalts it above romantic and sexual relationships. Kate does not end up in another relationship at the end of the movie; it is solely her relationships with Carly and Amber that help her get through the collapse of her marriage.

Without spoiling too much, I will also say that I enjoyed the revenge plot and found it surprising and satisfying.

What I didn’t like about it: As you may have been able to imply from the last two paragraphs, Amber seems a little bit flat compared to Kate and Carly. While she’s certainly likable, she’s not exactly interesting and really doesn’t play that much of a role in the revenge plot. I can’t help but think that you could make the movie without her and not lose much of anything.

I also don’t really see the necessity of Carly pursuing a romance with Kate’s brother (I literally don’t remember his name, that’s how little I cared about this relationship). The brother is a nice enough character but there really just isn’t enough time in the movie for me to get super invested in the romance. It’s also incredibly obvious that Kate and Carly’s brother are going to end up together so it doesn’t add any element of surprise.

Would I watch it again: I wouldn’t really object to watching it again, but I also don’t see it as something I’m going to watch over and over again either.